RESOLUTION GT-PLEN/6 (Antalya, 2006)

The Plenipotentiary Conference of the International Telecommunication Union (Antalya, 2006),

a) Resolution 73 (Minneapolis, 1998) of the Plenipotentiary Conference, which achieved its aims in regard to the holding of both phases of the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS);

b) Resolution 113 (Marrakesh, 2002) of the Plenipotentiary Conference;

c) Decision 8 (Marrakesh, 2002) of the Plenipotentiary Conference,

the Geneva Declaration of Principles and the Geneva Plan of Action, adopted in 2003, and the Tunis Commitment and the Tunis Agenda for the Information Society, adopted in 2005, all of which were endorsed by the United Nations General Assembly,

a) the role played by ITU in the successful organization of the two phases of WSIS;

b) that WSIS stated that the core competences of ITU in the field of ICTs, namely assistance in bridging the digital divide, international and regional cooperation, radio spectrum management, standards development and the dissemination of information, are of crucial importance for building the information society;

c) that the Secretary-General of the United Nations has established, at the request of the Summit, the United Nations Group on the Information Society (UNGIS) as the new inter-agency mechanism with the main objective of coordinating substantive and policy issues facing the United Nations’ implementation of the WSIS outcomes, and that ITU is named as a permanent member of UNGIS, and shares a rotating chairmanship thereof;

d) that WSIS called upon ITU, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), to play leading facilitation roles in the multistakeholder implementation of the Geneva Plan of Action and Tunis Agenda;

e) that WSIS identified ITU as the moderator/facilitator for action lines C2 (information and communication infrastructure) and C5 (building confidence and security in the use of ICTs) of the Tunis Agenda, and as a potential partner for a number of other actions lines ¹;

f) that ITU is given specific responsibility for maintaining the WSIS stocktaking database (§ 120 of the Tunis Agenda);

g) that ITU is capable of providing expertise relevant to the Internet Governance Forum as demonstrated during the WSIS process (§ 78 of the Tunis Agenda);

h) that ITU has, inter alia, specific responsibility to study and report on international Internet connectivity (§§ 27 and 50 of the Tunis Agenda);

i) that ITU has a specific responsibility to ensure rational, efficient and economic use of, and equitable access to, the radio-frequency spectrum by all countries, based on relevant international agreements (§ 96 of the Tunis Agenda);

j) that the United Nations General Assembly in its Resolution 60/252, decided to conduct an overall review of the implementation of the Summit outcomes in 2015,

a) the need for ITU to evolve constantly in response to changes in the telecommunication/ICT environment and, in particular in respect of evolving technologies and new regulatory challenges;

b) the desirability of using ITU's resources and expertise in a way which takes account of the rapid changes in the telecommunication environment and of the WSIS outcomes;

c) the need to carefully deploy the Union’s human and financial resources in a manner consistent with the priorities of the membership and cognizant of budgetary constraints, and the need to avoid duplication among the Bureaux and the General Secretariat;

d) that the full involvement of the membership, including Sector Members, as well as other stakeholders, is critical to successful ITU implementation of relevant WSIS outcomes;

e) that the strategic plan for the Union for 2008-2011 set out in Resolution 71
(Rev. Antalya, 2006) of this conference contains a commitment to the implementation of the goals and objectives of WSIS, as one of seven overall goals for the Union,

a) that WSIS acknowledged that multistakeholder participation is essential to the successful building of a people-centered, inclusive and development-oriented information society;

b) the nexus between issues of telecommunication development and those of economic, social and cultural development, as well as its impact on social and economic structures in all Member States;

c) § 98 of the Tunis Agenda, which encourages strengthened and continuing cooperation between and among stakeholders and welcomes, in that respect, the ITU-led Connect the World initiative;

d) that, in recent decades, progress in natural science, mathematics, engineering and technology has formed the basis for ICT innovations and convergence that are bringing the benefits of the information society to an increasing number of people around the world,

a) Resolution 30 (Rev. Doha, 2006) of WTDC;

b) Resolution GT-PLEN/5 (Antalya, 2006) of this conference;

c) the results of the 2006 session of the ITU Council 2006;

d) programmes, activities and regional activities established by the WTDC (Doha, 2006) with the objective of bridging the digital divide;

e) the relevant work already undertaken and/or to be carried out by ITU in implementing the WSIS outcomes, under the aegis of the Council Working Group on WSIS (WG-WSIS),

1 the importance of ITU’s role and participation in UNGIS, as a permanent member, and sharing a rotating chairmanship;

2 the ITU’s commitment to the implementation of the goals and objectives of WSIS, as one of the seven overall goals for the Union,

1 that ITU should play a leading facilitating role in the implementation process, along with UNESCO and UNDP, as stated in § 109 of the Tunis Agenda;

2 that ITU should play a leading facilitation role in the WSIS implementation process, as a moderator/facilitator for implementing action lines C2 and C5;

3 that ITU should carry out those activities that come within its mandate, and participate with other stakeholders, as appropriate, in the implementation of action lines C1, C3, C4, C6, C7, C11 and all other relevant action lines and other WSIS outcomes, within the financial limits set by the Plenipotentiary Conference;

4 to recognize the need for appropriate ITU participation in the implementation of action line C8, based on the work carried out in ITU-T on language character coding;

5 that ITU should continue to adapt itself, taking into account technological developments, and its potential to contribute significantly to building an inclusive information society;

6 to express its satisfaction with the successful outcomes of the Summit, in which the expertise and core competence of ITU were noted several times;

7 to express its thanks to the staff of the Union, the host countries and WG-WSIS for their efforts in the preparation of both phases of WSIS;

8 that there is a need to integrate the implementation of the Doha Action Plan, and in particular Resolution 30 (Rev. Doha, 2006), and other relevant current and future resolutions of plenipotentiary conferences, with the multistakeholder implementation of the WSIS outcomes;

9 that ITU should, within available resources, maintain the current public WSIS stocktaking database, as one of the valuable tools for assisting with the follow-up of WSIS, as instructed in § 120 of the Tunis Agenda,

1 to take all necessary measures for ITU to fulfil its role, as outlined in resolves 1, 2, 3 and 4 above;

2 to coordinate, with the Coordination Committee, the activities related to WSIS implementation for implementing resolves 1, 2, 3 and 4 above, with the aim of avoiding duplication of work among the Bureaux and the General Secretariat;

3 to work collaboratively with other entities involved in WSIS implementation, and to promote a clear understanding of the roles of each, in order to avoid duplication of activities;

4 to strengthen cooperation with the other bodies of the United Nations family, within the framework of UNGIS, as called for in the Tunis Agenda;

5 to raise public awareness of the Union’s mandate, role and activities and provide broader access to the Union’s resources for the general public and other actors involved in the emerging information society;

6 to report annually to the Council on the activities undertaken on these subjects, including their financial implications,

to ensure that concrete objectives and deadlines for the above activities are developed and reflected in the operational plans of each Sector,

to follow, as soon as possible and in accordance with Resolution 30 (Rev. Doha, 2006), a partnership approach in the activities of ITU-D related to its roles in the implementation and follow-up of the WSIS outcomes, in accordance with the provisions of the ITU Constitution and Convention, and to report annually, as appropriate, to the Council,

1 to oversee ITU’s implementation of the WSIS outcomes, and, within the financial limits set by the Plenipotentiary Conference, to make resources available as appropriate;

2 to oversee ITU’s adaptation to the information society, in line with resolves 5 above;

3 to maintain WG-WSIS, in order to facilitate membership input and guidance on the ITU implementation of relevant WSIS outcomes and to elaborate proposals to the Council that may be necessary for adapting ITU to its role in building the information society;

4 to include the report of the Secretary-General in the documents sent to Member States in accordance with No. 81 of the Convention,

to participate actively in implementing WSIS outcomes and in ITU’s further adaptation to the information society,

its warmest thanks and deepest gratitude to the Governments of Switzerland and Tunisia for having hosted the two phases of the Summit.